Business and Blogging

When It’s Okay To “Cheat”

by Laura Spencer on March 20th, 2008

(businessandblogging.com) Anyone who knows me personally knows that I’m pretty much of a straight shooter. In fact, among my friends I’m known for being a bit too honest at times. I’m the last person in the world who you would expect to tell you to “cheat,” but that’s exactly what I’m doing in this blog post.

Let me explain!

In school, we were told not to look on each other’s papers. Anyone who was caught looking at another student’s paper automatically failed the assignment, especially during an exam.

For an educational environment, that was exactly the right policy. Each student should be responsible for their own work and ONLY their own work. They should not compare their answers with the other students.

As business bloggers, sometimes we forget that it’s okay to compare our business blog with other business blogs in our industry.

Now, I’m definitely NOT saying that we should use the copy, images, or design from another blog. That’s plagiarism and not only is it wrong, it’s also illegal.

What I AM saying is that we can learn an awful lot by watching what other blogs are doing successfully, and unsuccessfully. In fact, not only is it permissable to look at other blogs in your industry and compare your own blog … it’s advisable.

Here are five questions to ask when you look at a business blog in your industry:

1. What is this blogger doing right?
2. What is this blogger doing wrong?
3. What would I do differently?
4. What can I learn about blogging from this blog?
5. What can I learn about my industry from this blog?

So go ahead! ‘Cheat!’ Look at your competitor’s blog, and do it today. What’s stopping you?

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POSTED IN: Corporate